Seeing poetry in nature

Today is the summer solstice – the longest day and shortest night of the year, marking the first day of summer, astronomically speaking. Meteorologically speaking, June 1 is the first day of summer which lasts until August 31. To throw us all into a richt tiravee Midsummer Day falls on June 24.

What with Gregorian calendars and Julian calendars you’d think, after all these centuries, we’d surely manage to get our calendars in alignment with the stars and all be singing from the same hymn sheet.

In Scotland, traditionally, midsummer was a time of ghoulies and ghaisties, of bonfires and dancing and feasting, when blessings were called down on crops to produce an abundant harvest. But nowadays it’s all dismissed as superstitious nonsense, and don’t scare the bairns.

I can leave the torch behind when I take Inka out last thing. As late as 10.30pm I’ll hear a blackbird still singing lustily away, protecting its territory and perhaps a second brood of chicks. The rooks and jackdaws in the small wood we walk to are gossiping amongst themselves as they settle for the night but they give us dog’s abuse for disturbing them as we pass.

Robert Louis Stevenson expresses it so simply in his poem Bed in Summer which appears in his Child’s Garden of Verses – In winter I get up at night / And dress by yellow candle-light. / In summer, quite the other way, / I have to go to bed by day.

Writing prose can be learned but writing such spontaneous poetry comes from within and is a gift from whoever your God is.

To give ourselves and Inka a change of scenery we drove over Cairn o’ Mount to find a forest walk. There was a haze over the Mearns when we looked back from the summit of the Cairn, but ahead Deeside was sparkling and sunny.

The intensity of the broom in full flower on the roadsides, along drystane dykes in the fields and across whole brae faces was quite breathtaking. The earlier flowering whins are losing their golden blossom and the broom’s lighter, buttery yellow blossom shimmered in the sunshine. We could hardly remember being so impressed with such floral extravaganza. Perhaps because we were seeing it in its full glory when in previous years we’d be driving round the countryside most days, watching the blossom as it started to come into flower.

It’s a tremendous year too for cottongrass, which isn’t cotton and isn’t grass. It’s a sedge and thrives on the moorland which the road runs through. The tufty white flower heads, which give it its name, are seed heads. The white plumes aren’t suitable for spinning into fabric but they have medicinal properties and were used as dressings in the First World War

Joy is ever on the wing

Kestrels, one of our smaller birds of prey, are on the RSPB amber conservation list meaning they have suffered a decline in numbers over recent years. I see adult birds fairly regularly but I’ve never seen their chicks. So I looked forward to meeting Chris Edwards who has a family of five chicks which hatched in an owl box in his garden. The owl box was intended to attract tawny owls but none ever came to it, choosing to nest in nearby woods.

Kestrels are more adaptable and five years ago the first pair took over the box and they have raised a brood in it each year since.

Fifty years ago sabre-winged swifts were a common sight in the spring skies but Daniele Muir of Tayside Swifts tells me that their numbers in Scotland have declined by 62% since 1995. The main reason for this is thought to be loss of nest sites. Tayside Swifts was set up 15 years ago as part of Tayside Biodiversity Partnership.

Tayside Swifts want to encourage readers to report sightings of swifts in what are known as screaming parties – flying together and calling to each other with their piercing “shree” calls – to help identify swift priority zones and help their numbers recover by putting up nesting boxes.

Swifts lead quite remarkable lives as they live entirely on the wing – feeding, mating, sleeping and landing only to breed. From the moment a young swift leaves the nest it won’t stop flying until it starts to breed at four years old.

To report sightings log on to taysidebiodiversity.co.uk and search for swifts.

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There was a haze over the Mearns when we looked back from the summit of the Cairn, but ahead Deeside was sparkling and sunny